ART only provides 20 minute highlights to local TVs
This evening, Al Arabiya news channel interviewed Muhyi Al Deen Kamel, son of Sheikh Saleh Kamel, owner of ART regarding the exclusive rights agreement that ART has with FIFA to air the World Cup in the Middle East.
The main topic of interest to us here in this blog is that local (terrestrial) TV stations in Arab countries will only get a ‘Match Highlights’ package that runs for 20 minutes and which can only be aired one to two hours after the match.
According to Mr. Kamel, the cost of this package per country, is about 5 to 7 percent of the cost of the broadcast rights paid by ART, and it was mentioned that Morrocan local TV officials have already complained about the price of $200,000 for this package….. so could this mean that ART paid $4,000,000 for the World Cup rights?
Anyway, the bottom line is that local TV stations will miss out on the advertising explosion that usually accompanies airing the World Cup, and it chould be a quiet and unprofitbale month for many local and satellite channels in the region.
Obviously, there is a huge backlash among viewers across the Arab World against this exclusive agreement, as everyone now realizes that they won’t be getting the World Cup on their natuonal TV stations for free; and that they must subscribe to ART. The rate differs from one country to another, but it’s generally out of reach for the average citizen, who will end up watching matches in restaurants, cafes and so on.
Responding to a question on how long ART has signed up with FIFA for the WorldCup, Mr. Kamel said that ART’s got it till 2014, and that if he could sign now for the World Cup till 2040, he would!
Here’s an Arabic summary of the interview on Al Arabiya’s website… and you can enjoy the hillarious commentary that follows from unhappy football fans!
4 comments May 30th, 2006
to express what many feel about the exclusive broadcast rights of Germany 2006. 
